Headgear with face shield



Sept. 22, 1959 A. J. RUGGIERO HEADGEAR WITH FACE SHIELD Filed May s,195e VEN TOR ALF/QED nl @UGG/ERO By@ MJW his ATTORNEY United StatesPatent O HEADGEAR WITH FACE SHIELD Alfred J. Ruggiero, San Francisco,

D. Bullard Company, ration of California Calif., assignor to E. SanFrancisco, Calif., a corpo- My invention relates to headgear equippedwith a face shield, and particularly to a demountable shield.

One ofthe objects of my invention is the provision of bracket means forquickly mounting and demounting a face shield on headgear.

Another object of the invention is the provision on a safety cap or hat,of a frictionally restrained demountable supporting structure for a faceshield.

Still another object is ythe provision of an adjustable friction bearingbetween the pivoted shield and headgear, to provide varying values offriction to control the pivotal movement.

The invention possesses other objects, some of which with the foregoingwill be brought out in the following description of the invention. I donot limit myself to the showing made by the said description and thedrawings, since I may adopt variant forms of the invention within thescope of the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. l is a fragmentary plan view of a safety cap, equipped with a faceshield in accordance with my invention. A portion of the crown is brokenaway to disclose underlying structure and portions are omitted to reducethe size of the view. The view is drawn approximately one-half actualsize.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional 'view through one side of the safety capand shield. The view is taken in the plane indicated by line 2-2 of Fig.1 and the parts in both views are assumed to be in the position in whichthey would be, set squarely on the head of a Welder with the shielddrawn down to protect the face, the cap being worn with the visorbehind. The view is drawn to approximately twice actual size, andportions are broken away to reduce the over-all size of the view.

For convenience, my invented device will be described as applied to aconventional hard-bodied safety cap, with cap and shield in position ofuse on the head of the wearer. The device, broadly comprises a socketrigidly fixed on each side of the body of the cap and roughly above theadjacent ear of the wearer.

The shield of conventional design, is provided with a bracket on eachside in cooperative relation to the adjacent socket. Each bracket isprovided with a stud or arm adapted to engage in the socket, and asecond arm or base pivoted to the shield. Resilient means are interposedbetween the socket and stud arm to reasonably resist their disengagementso that the shield may readily be dismounted from the cap with littledanger of accidental detachment; and resilient means adjustable indegree of pressure applied, is interposed between the shield and thebase arm of the bracket, so that the shield tends to remain in theposition to which it is pulled either in front of the face, or raisedand pushed back to inactive position.

Fixed on each side wall 2 of the cap body by rivets 3, is the socketcomprising a base plate 4, having the outwardly and downwardly extendingintegral resilient latch 5 struck therefrom. The latch is enclosed by arectangular U-shaped piece, having a vertical wall 7 parallel to thebase plate, and two parallel legs 8, the free end of each leg ending ina ange 9 through nce which the rivets 3 pass to hold tightly against thecap body the two parts of the socket.

Pivotally mounted on the shield 10 is a bracket, also of rectangularU-shape, and comprising a stud arm 11 having a narrower end portion 12extending beyond the shoulder 13 on each side edge; and also having aparallel base arm 14, integrally connected to the stud arm by the crossportion 15. The end 12 of the stud arm is of a width to slip readilybetween the parallel legs 8 of the socket, and is provided near its freeend with a bead '16 adapted to engage resiliently with the latch 5, whenthe stud arm is pushed down into the socket to arrange the shield on thecap.

The base arm is rotatably arranged on a doubly anged ring 18, thecentral flange 19 of which seats in a square hole in the body of theshield being resiliently held therein by the screw 21 The head 22 of thescrew impinges against the outside surface of the shield, and a stiffcoil spring 23 is interposed between the flanged nut 24 and the insideface of the liange 19. A fibre friction washer 26 is arranged on thering between the base arm 14 and the ring flange 27; and a secondfriction washer 28 and metal spacer and wear plate 29 `are positioned onthe ring between the base arm and the body of the shield.

The size and arrangement of the parts is such that by turning the screw21 in its nut, any desired pressure may be applied upon the base arm,pinched between the ilanged ring 18 and the shield wall. This pressureis usually such as to retain the shield resiliently in its adjustedposition in front of the face while permitting it to be shoved upwardand backwardly to a position of disuse above or on the visor 31 of thecap, which customarily is worn behind when the cap is used for a shieldmount.

I claim:

l. In a headgear having a face shield mounted thereon the combinationcomprising a sheet metal bracket interposed between the shield andheadgear and having a base in planar alignment with and pivotallymounted on the face shield and an integral arm extending freelytherefrom, socket means lixed on the headgear operatively engageablewith said integral bracket arm and comprising a generally rectangularU-shaped bracket providing a vertical wall parallel to said integralbracket arm and connected to said headgear in spaced relation thereto byparallel sides integral with said vertical Wall and therewith formingsaid socket to releasably and nonrotatably receive said integral bracketarm, and means associated with the pivoted base of the bracket toresiliently impose selected values of friction on said pivotal mounting.

2. The combination according to claim l in which resilientlydisplaceable latch means xed on the headgear extend into said socket andreleasably interlock with said integral bracket -arm when said armextends into the socket.

3. The combination according to claim 2, in which said integral bracketarm is provided with a bead extending transversely thereacross and saidresiliently displaceable latch means engages said integral bracket armbehind the bead to releasably lock the arm in the socket.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,111,747 Bowers Mar. 22, 1938 2,167,969 Bowers Aug. l, 1939 2,239,978Sanford Apr. 29, 1941 2,283,120 Malcom May 12, 1942 2,402,431 Morow June18, 1946 2,552,180 Kenney May 8, 1951 2,801,420 Malcom Aug. 6, 1957

